6 get death for kidnap of trader

A former policeman and his five cohorts were meted the death penalty yesterday by the Malabon City Regional Trial Court for the 1999 kidnapping of a Filipino-Chinese businesswoman and her driver in Manila.

Judge Benjamin Antonio of Malabon RTC Branch 170 found accused Danilo Fernandez, formerly of the Western Police District, Jaime Patio, Antonio Villarin, Teofilo Carillo, Jerry Fuentes, and Chito Dalicano, "guilty beyond reasonable doubt" for the kidnapping for ransom of Mary Chan and her driver, Rolando Oblena. In an 18-page decision, Antonio also ordered the offenders to pay the victims a total of P300,000 in moral, exemplary damages and the cost of the suit.

The court acquitted Teresa Sabanal, the lone woman suspect, for lack of evidence.

"Wala talagang kasalanan ang aking anak (My daughter has done nothing wrong)," said Sabanal’s teary-eyed mother Teresita, 50.

Sabanal, according to her mother, is a graduating physical therapist student who was dragged into the kidnapping case after being hired by the accused as laundry woman at their safehouse.

"Naghahanapbuhay lamang siya para makapag-aral (She was only trying to earn a living to sustain her studies)," Teresita said.

Lawyer Arturo Barios Jr., counsel of Fernandez expressed confidence his client would also be acquitted once the case reached the Supreme Court. Fernandez was dropped from the police force in 1989.

"I am confident that my client would also be vindicated once the case is elevated to the Supreme Court for he was never mentioned by witnesses to be present at the safehouse where the victims were kept," Barios said.

Court records revealed that at at 7 p.m. on May 25, 1999, Chan and her driver were snatched by four armed men along Severino Street in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

The group, aboard a white car, blocked the path of the victims’ van and commandeered their vehicle.

The kidnappers brought the victims to their lair on Dalagang Bukid Street, Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas where they were kept for five days before operatives of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) came to Chan and Oblena’s rescue.

The PAOCTF’s operation resulted in the apprehension of six male and a female suspect and the seizure of assorted high-powered firearms, including an M16 rifle, M167 rifle, a caliber .45 pistol, two .38 caliber revolvers, magazines for a .45 pistol and for M16 and M167 rifles, two hand grenades, and other assorted ammunition.

The group first demanded a P15-million ransom from the victims’ kin, but was later reduced to P2 million. It was agreed that the pay-off must be made in Dagat-Dagatan. Unknown to the kidnappers, the Chan’s family coordinated with the PAOCTF.

In their defense, the accused claimed that they were merely picked up by PAOCTF operatives in various places and brought to Camp Crame, where they were tortured by police to admit to the crime.

However, Chan and Oblena positively identified in a police lineup four of the suspects as their abductors and two others as their guards at the safehouse.

The victims failed to identify Sabanal.

The court said that the positive identification of the six accused have been satisfactorily and categorically established.

"Alibis and denials are inherently weak defenses and must be rejected when the identities of the accused have been satisfactorily established by eyewitnesses," the court said.